Greek Interbellum Modernizers and the `Sociological Idea'

The institutional problems facing sociology in Greece and the difficulties of the Greek sociological community to play a role comparable to the one seen in other European countries is traced back to the intellectual history of the period between the First and Second World Wars. The main point made here is that the interrelationship between the breakdown of ideologies of modernization and the orientation towards certain theoretical approaches during the second half of this period have led to an intellectual stance which was hostile to classical sociology. The result was a displacement of sociological thought by Stalinist Marxism and romantic elitism, which could be partly overcome only after the abolition of the dictatorship of the colonels (1967-74), and which has created enduring deficiencies in the deliberative components of the politics of modernization in Greece.